Geology Department
Newsletter
Group photo taken at the Fall 2015 Geology Bonding Night held at Pizza Hut.
Hello Alumni! On behalf of the Geology Department, I hope 2016 is starting out well for you. There have been a
lot of changes during the past twelve months, as you’ll see by reading the remainder of this newsletter. Most of
the changes are driven by the ongoing budget crisis in the state of Illinois so it is completely out of our hands.
We expect even more changes in the coming year, but rest assured that we will be here in some form for the
foreseeable future and our commitment to our students is as strong as ever. Despite these lean budgetary times
we continue to bring students on field trips, involve them in undergraduate research, and bring them to
research conferences to present their results. We are able to continue these activities because you, our alumni,
generously contribute to our Geology Foundation account. We can’t thank you enough for your past and your
continuing monetary support of the Geology Department. I hope you enjoy reading this year’s edition of the
Geology Alumni Newsletter.
Steve Bennett
Alumni Newsletter Editor
Artwork on the 2016 WIU Geology t-shirt features Bob
Johnson’s vision of a wrestling match between Lincoln and
an oversized Tully Monster.
Finished Diprotodon
skull. This was in the
process of printing last
year at this time. Bob
assembled, painted, and
made a stand for the
skull. Dr. Hegna has it
on display in the Geol
112 - History of the
Earth lab room.
Geology Department Newsletter
Page 2
Leslie Melim
I spent most of Spring 2015 Semester on sabbatical in Albuquerque, NM working on the scanning
electron microscope at the University of New Mexico. Much as I love teaching, it was a nice change to
just work on research for awhile. I missed Macomb and my friends here, but really enjoyed spending
time with my friends there. I had planned on spending two months, but stayed an extra month after a
riding accident left me with a broken ankle (it’s fine now) and unable to drive my manual-transmission
Subaru. The extra time was very productive, as I collected hundreds of additional images and completed
most of a detailed survey of recrystallization fabrics in cave pearls from the Huber Limestone Mine in
Quincy, IL and from Carlsbad Cavern, NM. In addition, I worked some more on the living pool fingers
from the Herbstlabyrinth/Adventhöhle Cave System, Germany, which produced a quick paper and a
talk.
Summer was fairly quiet with no field camp. I did get to Denver, Colorado for the American Association
of Petroleum Geologists Annual Meeting as part of editor duties for Journal of Sedimentary Research. I
also managed a nice visit with my sister in the Seattle area: July has much nicer weather than my usual
December visit. In between trips, I found time for lots of horseback riding and woodworking.
In August, I got back into teaching with the largest Geol 340 Strat. Sed. class ever: 22 students! It made
for a very busy semester, particularly when grading the WID papers came around. As usual, I went back
to UNM over Thanksgiving Break, taking two geology majors, Nick Liming and Justin Christensen, to
finish up the cave pearl recrystallization study. Coming home, there was a huge ice storm over the Texas
Panhandle that closed the interstate. To go around, we drove up through Colorado but it still got us. We
encountered freezing drizzle on I-70 and so had to slow down. Unfortunately, the idiot behind us left her
cruise control on (in ice?!) and rear ended my car. No one was hurt, but we ended up staying an extra
two days in Colorado before I could get a rental car from her insurance company. Nick and Justin were
great company in the little tiny town of Limon in eastern Colorado. I ended up taking the little Ford rental on a long odyssey over winter break from Illinois to Seattle to Albuquerque and finally back to
Colorado to pick up my car in January. I’d much rather have done it with my all-wheel drive Subaru!
Presentations:
Melim, L.A., Spilde, M.N., Northup, D.E., 2015, Geomicrobiology of cave pearls: New evidence from
Carlsbad Cavern. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, Vol. 47, No. 7, p. 57,
Presented November 1, 2015.
Melim, L.A. Northup, D.E., Hughes, K.J., Spilde, M.N., and Boston, P.J., 2015, An SEM and molecular
study of the living pool fingers in the Herbstlabyrinth/Adventhöhle Cave System, Hess, Germany.
2015 NSS Convention, Waynesville, MO, July 13-17, 2015. Presented July 15, 2015.
Publications:
Meyer, S., Melim, L., and Scholz, D., 2015, Morphologie der Pool-Fingers in der Riesenberghöhle (Süntel,
Niedersachsen), Die Höhle, v. 66, p. 80-95 (in German, English abstract).
Melim, L.A., Northup, D.E., Spilde, M.N., and Boston, P.J., 2015, Update: Living reticulated filaments
from Herbstlabyrinth-Adventhöhle Cave System, Germany, Journal of Cave and Karst Studies, v. 77,
p. 87-90.
Preston, L.J., Melim, L.A., Polyak, V.J., Asmerom, Y., Southam, G., 2014, Infrared spectroscopic
biosignatures from Hidden Cave, New Mexico: Possible applications for remote life detection,
Geomicrobiology Journal, v. 31, p. 929-941.
Geology Department Newsletter
Page 3
Peter Calengas
Greetings to all of the friends of the Department! The past year has been a very eventful one for everyone.
Although our overall enrollments are similar to recent years, we currently have a large group of students taking
our upper division courses (Geologic Field Methods, Stratigraphy and Sedimentology, Structural Geology)
producing the largest enrollments we have had in these courses in 30 years. That is the good news. The bad news
is that we once again have a “bare-bones” budget, and next year does not look any better! Fortunately, your
generous financial support has made a difference. We will be offering Geology Field Camp this summer and have
been able to continue to support our in-class field trips, trips for field work, and travel to present research at
conferences. Without your generous donations to our foundation this would not be possible. In fact, half of our
expenses during the last fiscal year were paid using our Geology Foundation account. Your continued support
helps defray the cost for these important activities and allows us to continue to offer a high-quality Geology
program for our majors.
With Dr. Mayborn serving as an Interim Associate Dean in the College of Arts and Sciences, we were allowed to
hire a visiting lecturer, Dr. Petr Yakovlev, for the Spring 2016 semester to teach Structural Geology. Although the
geomorphology faculty position remains unfilled, we have asked Dr. Yakovlev to teach Geomorphology this spring
to give our students an additional upper-division course option.
I continue to teach my online Environmental Geology class and to serve as a consultant to a variety of Industrial
Mineral enterprises. Keep in touch. It’s always great to hear from you.
Diane Edwards
Hi Everyone,
As always, it’s a pleasure to submit a “blurb”
for the annual Geology newsletter. That means
I’m still vertical and working with some of the
best folks on campus. There is a lot of
uncertainty here at WIU and throughout the
state of Illinois. Nonetheless we keep moving
forward and coming to work each day to do
the best we can for our students.
Our major count is holding steady, which is
great news! We have a large group of students
signed up for Geology Summer Field Camp 2016. Right now the count is 23 which matches the count from
1984’s field camp. We’re very humbled by the Paul Wagner Memorial contributions received this past year.
These funds went to the Geology Foundation and have been earmarked for field camp.
We’ve had really great turnouts the past few years for Bonding Night, the annual Geology Club Holiday Party, and
the spring picnic. It’s very heart-warming to see our students interested in these Geology-related social events.
On a personal note, my entire family met for a week of fun in the sun and on the water at Lake of the Ozarks,
Missouri. We had beautiful weather, amazing accommodations and a ton of fun. I feel truly blessed! The photo
was taken at “Wobbly Boots” Restaurant, Osage Beach. Those of you that have visited this area are probably
familiar with it.
Please keep in touch & wishing you all a healthy, happy year!
Geology Department Newsletter
Page 4
To m H e g n a
2015 proved to be a busy year in the “Hegna Lab”. In the
spring, I had the privilege of taking the Paleontology class on
a trip to Iowa City to see the paleontology collections at the
University of Iowa (my alma mater), the MAPS fossil show, and
the Devonian fossil gorge. I helped out with the Structural
Geology field trip to Wisconsin—seeing some sights that I had
not seen since I was an undergraduate and did a similar trip,
as well as some that I had never seen before. I was even able
to convince Dr. Mayborn to make a brief stop at a spectacular
Ordovician-age outcrop in southern Wisconsin to see some
fossils. At the end of the spring semester, I took several students to the North Central Geological Society of America
Meeting, where several presented their research.
My big trip of the summer was a National Geographic-funded
trip to the House Range of Utah to study a site of exceptional
preservation in the Cambrian-aged Weeks Formation. Five
WIU Geology undergraduates came with: Justin Christensen,
Nick Liming, Corrin Peters-Kaffenberger, Hunter Starr, and
Andrew Turner. We worked with an international team of
Scaling ripplemarks preserved in
paleontologists collecting fossils, dodging snakes, eating
quartzite during the Spring 2015
Structural Geology/Petrology trip
spoiled hot dogs and sleeping in the desert. Miraculously, we
all came back alive! This trip corresponded with my wedding
anniversary—meaning that because of geology, I have missed my anniversary twice since coming to WIU—
three after this coming summer when I will be helping out with field camp. I should probably move my anniversary to a more convenient date to save my wife the shame of her husband leaving her for rocks on their
anniversary.
I was awarded a summer stipend, and used it to travel to the UK to learn some new fossil processing
techniques involving hydrofluoric acid with my friend Tom Harvey at the University of Leceister. I hope to
begin using these techniques at WIU with the help of Brian Bellott in the Chemistry department. I also got a
chance to stop for a few days in Bath to visit another friend at the University of Bath, Tim Astrop, and work on
finishing up a manuscript together. The traveling meant that I spent a lot of time away from my family this
past summer, so I had to do a lot of make up time with my two kids when I returned. I took my son for his
first father-son camp out. We had a nice family picnic prior to the camping where my wife and daughter
joined us.
In the fall, I helped out with Dr. Melim’s annual Sedimentary Geology field trip to southern Illinois. I also
traveled to the National Geological Society of America meeting in Baltimore, where I presented two posters
and one talk (“Pyritized in situ trilobite eggs from the Ordovician of New York (Lorraine Group): Implications
for trilobite reproductive biology”, “Trilobites as arthropods: the implications of the arthrodial membrane for
trilobite taphonomy”, and “Possible minute branchiopod mandibles (?Cladocera) from the lake deposits
(Ciniza Lake) in the Upper Triassic Chinle Formation (New Mexico) and the temporal record of small
carbonaceous fossils (SCFs)”).
Over winter break, I submitted round 2 of our Scanning Electron Microscope grant—with positive reviews last
year, we’re hoping this is the year it will be funded. We have a number of faculty from WIU involved in the
grant, and if funded, it will significantly enrich our classes and student research projects to have a piece of
equipment like that on campus for easy access.
Geology Department Newsletter
Page 5
Student projects:
•Kevin Cavett spent the summer hiking through the wilds of Argyle Lake to test a GIS approach to predicting the
location of rocky outcrops.
• Justin Christensen and Andrew Turner worked on CT scans of an enigmatic arthropod called Schramixerxes
geremi.
•Daniel Hillenberg has been doing some modern clam shimp appendage dissections to better understand their
fossils.
•Drew Laviada-Garmon has been trying to understand how some unusual examples of petrified wood were
preserved—a task made easier by a recent trip to the SEM in Iowa City.
•Rayleno Oliviera-Santana and Corrin Peters-Kaffenberger worked on better understanding trilobite ontogeny
from the Cambrian Weeks Formation.
•Jacob Shaw has been working on several species of clam shrimp from a Triassic lakebed in New Mexico.
•Hunter Starr is working on writing up his findings on a lobster that was misidentified as an amphipod
crustacean by a previous worker.
Publications
Serrano, M. de L., T.A. Hegna, P. Schaaf, L. Pérez, E. Centeno-Garcia, & F.J. Vega. 2015. The aquatic and
semiaquatic biota in Miocene amber from the Campo La Granja Mine (Chiapas, Mexico): Paleoenvironmental
implications. Journal of South American Earth Sciences. 62: 243-256.
Roberts, E., H. Jelsma, S. Perritt & T.A. Hegna. 2015. Mesozoic sedimentary cover sequences of the Congo Basin
in the Kasai Region, Democratic Republic of Congo. In "Geology and Resource Potential of the Congo Basin—
dedicated to L. Cahen and H. Kampunzu", editted by M.J. de Wit, F. Guillocheau, M.C.J De Wit. Springer
Verlag. p. 163-191.
Broda, K., T.A. Hegna & M. Zatoń. 2015. Fossils explained: Thylacocephalans. Geology Today. 31(3): 116-120.
Sigma Gamma Epsilon faculty advisor
Steve Bennett presents the 2015 W.A.
Tarr Award winner Megan Beeler with
her certificate and $50 check.
Congratulations Megan!
Page 6
Geology Department Newsletter
Ky l e M ay b o r n
It has been a year of surprises and challenges. In June I received an email from our Dean asking if I was in town and
could I stop by for a visit. I thought she might ask me to
serve on some committee for the College as I have many
times in the past, but no, I was quite surprised when she
asked me if I would serve as an Interim Associate Dean. I
took a few days to think about it and then said yes on the
condition that I would still teach Mineralogy and Igneous and
Metamorphic Petrology. It has been quite interesting and
challenging, but I’m thankful that I still start most of my days
in the Geology Department.
It may look like karaoke, but this is how you
describe the structural geology at this location in
Devil’s Lake State Park, Wisconsin
Mineralogy went well with fifteen fun and engaged students. It is funny that they only know me as wearing a
jacket and tie. I told them that all the previous students could never imagine me in anything but Levi’s, flannel shirts, and Merrell hiking shoes.
Last year’s Petrology/Structure trip was to central Wisconsin to visit the Baraboo Syncline and the Wausau
Magmatic Terrain. We explored some new (to us) outcrops along the river in downtown Wausau which had
some interesting magmatic mixing textures and inclusions. We did not camp at Devil’s Lake but stayed at a
Hartman Creek State Park closer to Wausau.
Research on the Mellen Complex in northern Wisconsin is continuing. I took two undergraduates with me and
we did some relatively closely-spaced sampling near the base of the Mineral Lake Intrusion, because the previous year’s work suggested the presence of a marginal reversal. Current undergraduate Luke Smith presented this work at the North-Central GSA Meeting in Madison last spring.
In addition to work, I have still been hitting the trails for some running and mountain biking. Last spring I
went to Adventure Racing Camp in northwestern Illinois. Two days of orienteering, mountain biking, rock
climbing, and rappelling, capped off by a six hour adventure race. It was a blast.
I hope that all is going well for you. Please send me an email as I would love to hear how you are doing (KRMayborn@wiu.edu).
Sara Bennett
We visited Mammoth Cave National Park in August. On the ever-popular
Violet City Lantern Tour, small groups of people experience the cave by
lantern light, which truly is the best way to explore the cave. The historic
cave tours offer stark reminders of the oddities of medical practices
during the 19th century, as we were led through the sad, little
tuberculosis huts, thick with shadows and melancholy. On a much
“lighter” note, we took a canoe trip down the incredibly lovely Green River
that flows through the park. This is absolutely a must do activity.
We then visited a restored, early 19th century, pioneer
village at Spring Mill State Park in Indiana. An extremely
knowledgeable park employee operates a meticulously
restored, water-powered gristmill. The operator opens the
Outside the University of Kansas Memorial
Union during the SGE National Convention
Geology Department Newsletter
Page 7
sluice gate and grinds corn every day on the 1000-pound quartzite millstones. The sounds of the rotating
water wheel and groaning of the gears is very cool. To top off the whole experience, freshly ground
cornmeal may be purchased for home use. Right next door to the park is the Gus Grissom Memorial
Museum so be sure and stop by for a look at the tiny space capsule that Gus was confined in during a
Gemini mission.
Sigma Gamma Epsilon celebrated its Centennial at the University of Kansas. I have not attended an SGE
meeting for a number of years and was interested to see that 21st century meetings are quite similar in
format to their 20th century counterparts, although there was a definite lack of power point
presentations during much of the 20th century. The best part of most geologic gatherings is the
concluding field trip. The opportunity to collect gastropod shells was a highlight for me. I also found the
birds eye view and discussion of subtle glacial features quite interesting.
The 49th Annual GSA North-Central Section Meeting was held in Madison, Wisconsin. The convention
center is located a few blocks from one the most beautiful State Capital buildings ever constructed. Be
sure and obtain a copy of the fossil location pamphlet and have a great time searching for the famous
fossils embedded in the interior building stone. To commemorate your visit, take selfie photos with the
fossils, including the well-known, 400-million-year-old, sea star in one of the steps. (Obtaining a selfie
with the sea star will be awkward, but well worth it!)
Bob Johnson
I’m sad to say that this may be my last blurb for the geology
newsletter. As of this writing I am being laid off from the university
along with 40+ other faculty for what the administration calls
“monetary reasons”. The particulars of the lay off are too long and
complicated to detail here. I’m sure you can find the information on
line if you’re curious. There is a chance that my position could be
saved through arbitration, but that is in the future. I will tell you that
things are pretty messed up in the state of Illinois. Pay attention, and
don’t believe it couldn’t happen to you. The callous actions and
bickering of our myopic elected oaf-ficials have far reaching, and long
-term negative effects on everyone.
Posing with his most recent trophy
from the Broken Arrow Stunt
Championships in St. Louis.
On the brighter side I once again emerged victorious at the Broken
Arrow Stunt Championships in St. Louis. The weather was fine and
the flying was too. In addition there is now a model airplane club in Macomb. You can find us by searching
for: Macomb, IL RC Flyers. There are several videos of our flying and a few feature yours truly.
The family is well, and Pam and I continue to plod through cleaning out my mothers house. I hope to be
done with it this spring.
New 3-D printed specimens keep coming in thanks to Dr. Hegna. Among them we have a Diprotodon
(giant Wombat), some assorted hominids and a soon to be complete Mosasaur. These are quite nicely
done and when finished look very much like the genuine article. There’s still a lot of painting yet to be
done.
If indeed this is my last missive, I would like to say that I have enjoyed meeting and working with all our
students over the last 37 years. I like to think that my efforts may have added in some small way to your
education and success, and of course I wish for all of you the very best in the future.
Geology Department Newsletter
Page 8
P e t r Ya k o v l e v
Hi everyone,
I’m excited to be a new member of the WIU Geology
community! I recently finished my PhD in Structural Geology at
the University of Michigan, where I spent the better part of the
five years traipsing around the Tibetan Plateau. My interests lie
in the long-term deformation of the earth’s crust, and the
formation of major mountain belts. I’ve had the opportunity to
use a wide array of techniques and methods during my
graduate studies, which I hope to introduce to students during
my classes.
Relaxing on the Tibetan Plateau
This spring I’m teaching Structural Geology, Geomorphology,
and the Field Trip course. The students have been great so far.
I’m really eager to get to know them and help them learn! The field trip course will be joining a guided trip that
will be part of the annual meeting of the North Central Section of the Geological Society of America. This trip
will explore fluorite deposits within the Illinois-Kentucky Fluorspar District, and I plan to introduce some topics
in economic geology prior to our departure. We are incredibly lucky to be able to subsidize this experience for
our students with money from the Geology Fund, which would have been impossible if not for the generous
contributions of our alumni.
Best,
Dr. Petr Yakovlev
Steve Bennett
Hello everyone! In terms of teaching, this year has been much like the last. In the Fall semester I taught
Introduction to the Earth, Hydrogeology, and Geologic Field Methods (21 students, my largest class yet!). I’ve also
been teaching my online Earth and Energy Resources course the past four semesters (including the summer).
Online courses are very popular and I am becoming more comfortable with the delivery method, although I still
much prefer a face-to-face course.
I have two students working with me on undergraduate research
projects involving the Spring Lake watershed. One is continuing
work from a past student on nutrient measurements in a tributary
to the lake. The other student is attempting to develop a
preliminary model to simulate streamflow in the watershed using
the U.S. Army Corps’ HEC-HMS program. By this time of the year
I am always itching to get back outside to do some field work!
I continue to serve as the Treasurer for the Illinois Groundwater
Association, which will be holding their Spring meeting the day
after the North-Central GSA meeting in Champaign.
Last summer I had another milestone in my fatherhood. My
younger son is now taller than me! Those little boys that some
of you probably remember from Geology Department
gatherings are now as big as my students, and my older son
has a thick beard! Where has all the time gone? Keep in touch,
I always enjoy hearing from our alumni.
Collecting fossils at an outcrop along a road cut south
of Lawrence, Kansas during the SGE National
Convention field trip (although it looks like we are
doing community service road clean-up).
Geology Department Newsletter
Page 9
Steve Bennett, Chad Sperry (Director, GIS
Center), and Bob Johnson pose by the
Topography Sand Table they built. Steve saw a video of one
of these posted on the Illinois State Geological Survey
Facebook page and realized we could build one of them for
WIU. Chad and Bob collaborated to build this wonderful
teaching tool that utilizes a computer, a projector, and an
Xbox Kinect to project colored topographic contours onto
the sand surface in real-time. You move the sand and it
immediately redraws the contours. It is mesmerizing! It has
been used in our geology labs and as a display at
conferences and it has been a huge hit. You can read the
WIU press release at:
http://www.wiu.edu/news/newsrelease.php?release_id=12751
Updated “Evolution of Flesh-Eating Dinosaur” hall display. Now includes relative size diagrams.
Dr. Hegna made a cast of this large crinoid house in
the Yale University collection. It will be painted to
bring out the details.
Dr. Hegna modeling his latest
3D-printing project
(in progress), a mosasaur skull.
Page 10
Geology Department Newsletter
Geology Club Corner
The geology club resurrected what will become an annual pre-Christmas event—the rock and mineral sale. The
sale was surprisingly profitable, and will help support our activities throughout the year.
We took a trip again this year to the Vincennes Sand Pit, where we again found some amazing geodes (thanks
to alumni Don Smith!).
Our ‘Bad Geology Movie’ night has continued this semester, with the occasional ‘Good Geology Documentary’
added in.
WIU alumnus Don Smith giving the history of the quarry and talking about the mining industry during the
Geology Club geode-collecting trip (left). Group shot of the Geology Club members during same trip (right).
SGE News
The Delta Psi Chapter remained active this past year, conducting initiations
each semester, continuing work on the sidewalk timeline, and selling items
during the annual Geodeland Rock and Mineral Show.
We sent a delegation (Megan Beeler, Steve Bennett, Sara Bennett) to
represent the chapter at the SGE National Convention. It was held at the
University of Kansas to commemorate the founding of SGE at this institution
100 years ago.
In cooperation with the Geology Club, SGE had some new Geology t-shirts
made featuring more of Bob Johnson’s wonderful artwork. You can see it on
the front page of this newsletter!
Megan Beeler at the SGE
National Convention
Geology Department Newsletter
Page 11
Group Photo from Summer Geology Field Camp 2006
Richard Schafer
Freshman Scholarship
Continuing Student
Alumni Award
Benjamin Yeacker
Grace Iftner
Drew Laviada-Garmon
Richard Schafer
Community College
Scholarship
New Geology Major
Scholarships
Paige Elsea
Reed Duyvejonck
Benjamin Grober
Page 12
Geology Department Newsletter
Undergraduate Research Presentations
The Geology Department once again had a good showing at
WIU’s annual Thomas E. Helm Undergraduate Research Day
with eight students presenting their research.
The abstracts for their research are posted at http://
www.wiu.edu/centennial_honors_college/
research_day/2015abstracts.php
Lukas Smith - Mineral Chemistry Constraints on
the Origin of the Mineral Lake Intrusion,
northern Wisconsin
Ramon Glazianne Barbosa
Carvalho - Mineralogic
Trends in the Eastern
Region of Mineral Lake
Intrusion, Northern
Wisconsin
Nick Liming and Corrin Peters - Silicification of
trilobites in the Cambrian Weeks Formation
(House Range, Utah)
Hunter Starr - Epilogue to the
Tale of the Triassic Amphipod:
Rosagammarus is a Decapod
Tail (Luning Formation, Nevada)
Justin Christensen and Andrew Turner The 3D Morphology of the Enigmatic
Carboniferous Arthropod, Schramixerxes
gerem (Montceau-les-Mines) via Micro
Computed Tomography (microCT)
Stefan Ososky had 2 posters!
Mississippian Bryozoans Preserved in Glauconite (Illinois, USA)
Range of Motion in the Appendicular Skeleton in Struthio camelus
Page 13
Geology Department Newsletter
Page 13
Geology Department Gatherings
Spring 2015 Geology Picnic at Horn Field Campus
Group shot of the students that attended the Geology
Department Holiday Party. Can you pick out the first
grade student?
William Buscemi was the winner of our annual rock
hammer raffle during Bonding Night. Bob has not
shrunk over the years, William is just really tall!
Geology Department Newsletter
Page 14
2015 Graduates
Megan Beeler
Dorota Glod
Andrew Hope
Justin Longacre
Carl Nozum
Stefan Ososky
Manuel Vasquez
Some of our Spring 2015 Graduates: (left to right)
Donations
Dori Glod, Stefan Ososky, Manny Vasquez, Andrew Hope, Megan Beeler
The Geology Department would like to thank the individuals and organizations listed below for their donations.
Your generous gifts have allowed us to provide scholarships, defray student costs of field trips, purchase scientific
equipment for use in undergraduate research, and cover registration fees and travel expenses of students
presenting research at geologic conferences. Again, thank you! (This list contains donations received since January,
2015)
Phyllis Aragaki*
Sandra Jankowski-Rose
Amy Rickwartz*
Timothy Aten
William Jardine
Jon Rickwartz*
Rosemary Booth*
William Johnson
Stanley Robinson
William Branson
Marvin Klusman
Laura Sandall*
Victoria Broomhead*
Steven Larson
Peter Sandall*
Craig Brown
Eric Luoma*
Sandra Schneider*
Peter Calengas
Marathon Oil Corporation
(Matching for S. Koza)
Billy Simmons*
John Carl
Stephanie Clark*
Bethany Evans*
Christopher Evans*
Exxon Mobil
(Matching for G. Walsh)
Kathryn Fettig*
Steven Fettig*
Christine Garretson*
Linda Gates*
Kurt Goebel
James Holmes*
Jennifer Holmes*
Cole Martin*
Kathleen Murphy*
Judith Osmonson
Lee Osmonson
Stephen Smith
Marc Steib*
Michelle Strickland*
Joann Wagner*
Kari Wolf*
Todd Paulson*
Kim Perez
Harry Petersen
Amber Peterson*
Todd Peterson*
Harley Ponsler
Spencer Quam
Lisa Reid*
*In memory of Paul Wagner, a
total of $2,570.00 was received
in Paul’s memory which will
benefit 2016 Field Camp students.
Geology Department Newsletter
Page 15
Geo logy News Hig h ligh ted on the WIU Web Si te
Geology Assistant Professor and Students Study Exceptionally Preserved Fauna from the
Cambrian-Age Formation
S e p t e mb e r 1 6 , 2 0 1 5
MACOMB, IL – From May 31- June 11, Western Illinois University Assistant Professor of Paleontology Thomas Hegna and five of his geology
students investigated a unique Cambrian-aged (approximately 500-million-year-old) fossil deposit in west-central Utah. The National Geographic
Society Committee for Research and Exploration supported the team's fieldwork.
The five undergraduates included geology majors, senior Nick Liming (Lombard, IL), senior Hunter Starr (Elmhurst, IL), senior Corrin Kaffenburger (Peters) (Quincy, IL), senior Justin Christensen (Mokena, IL) and sophomore Andrew Turner (Western Springs, IL).
The students worked along with an international team of paleontologists that included researcher Rudy Lerosey-Aubril from the School of Environmental & Rural Science at the University of New England, associate professor Robert Gaines from Pomona College, research fellow Javier
Ortega Hernández from Cambridge University and associate research scientist Peter Van Roy from Yale University.
Hegna and Lerosey-Aubril had been collaborating on this project for more than five years and were able to make this research trip a reality with
help from National Geographic and several WIU undergraduate research grants, which supported a larger field party that included the students.
"The experience was an amazing opportunity because it was supported by National Geographic. I was lucky to be a part of it," said Kaffenburger.
"At first I was intimidated to be working with all of these men who had a Ph.D., but I soon realized that they were very nice, and I was able to
learn so much from them."
The group observed remains of many multicellular organisms that have been preserved since the Cambrian Explosion.
"After the Cambrian Explosion, we saw the first appearance of many multicellular groups of animals on Earth. After the explosion, the Ordovician Radiation event is when we saw a diversification of many of these original groups. Having a set of exceptionally preserved animals inbetween those two major events is helping us connect those evolutionary lineages through time," said Hegna.
The group worked from dawn to dusk in hot, dry conditions with temperatures ranging from 80-90 degrees each day. They worked in quarries
that had been previously opened, splitting rock while looking for specimens and going bed-by-bed trying to get into layers of rock where soft
tissue was preserved.
"Normally, when people think of fossils, they think of shells or bones, but what is unique about our work is that we were finding preserved soft
tissue—the parts that are not mineralized. We were finding remains of animals that did not have shells or bones, which is not normal, so this is a
very unique deposit," said Hegna.
"It was very fun and interesting to go out and do fieldwork. I learned a lot compared to what I am limited to learning in a classroom. It took me
three days to finally find any soft-tissue preservation, but the hard work paid off," said Christensen.
After gathering fossils of fauna in Utah, the team shipped the fossils back where they could study them at a later date.
"Even more common fossils, like the shells of trilobites, are unique. The specimens are preserved with silica in a limestone. By taking concentrated hydrochloric acid (HCl), we are able to dissolve away everything that's not preserved by silica, leaving only the fossil, which allows us to examine it in better detail," said Liming.
"I am extremely interested in continuing my education after earning a bachelor's degree, and this was my first time out in the field. I really got a
sense of what it is like going out and collecting specimens as well as learning what kind of fieldwork is necessary to gather the specimens needed
for studies in the area I'm interested in, which is paleontological sciences," said Starr.
Hegna and the students will continue to study the fauna and hope to be able to take another trip in the future.
"We are very lucky that Dr. Hegna advocated for his students to be a part of this trip because we were the only students on this project, and it was
a great opportunity," said Kaffenburger. "Being able to work with my hands and work with people who are very passionate about what they do
helped me realize what I can do with my geology degree after graduation, and I'm very excited for that."
Posted By: Caitlin Meyer s (CR-Meyers2@wiu.edu)
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Bob Johnson recently completed this set of four skulls for Dr.
Hegna to use in Earth History and Paleontology. Can you pick
out the marsupial lion skull?
Nick Liming, Hunter Starr,
Andrew Turner, Justin Christensen, and
Corrin Peters-Kaffenburger
posing on an outcrop during their
research trip to Utah.